WhatsApp: now available for Feature Phones running KaiOS
24.7.2019
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
Feature Phones are new but not smart phones. And now they have WhatsApp. 100 million users will have access to the largest messaging software in the world.
Feature phones no longer have to do without WhatsApp. Last night, the official version of WhatsApp for Feature Phones was released in the KaiStore. The small operating system is closing a big gap in messaging by connecting Feature Phones – sometimes also called dumbphones – to the world's largest messaging service.
KaiOS is catching up, even its KaiOS phones
KaiOS has therefore finally officially done what other manufacturers have already achieved with this operating system. First and foremost, Nokia, who've installed their own version of WhatsApp on their Feature Phones. Nevertheless: with WhatsApp, Feature Phones have become more attractive overnight.
The third software
The mobile communications market is currently dominated by two operating systems. Android with all its offshoots and Apple's iOS. In their shadow, KaiOS plays it safe as a reasonably well-constructed operating system for Feature Phones. In 2018, Google invested 22 million US dollars in the development company KaiOS Technologies. The Indian telecom giant quickly bought 16 percent of the company with seven million US dollars in cash.
KaiOS hasn't been on the market for long and has emerged from the meanwhile discontinued Firefox OS by the Mozilla Foundation. The system has a closed source and a curated App Store.
In India, KaiOS is the second most widely used operating system after Android – ahead of Apple's iOS.
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